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Switzerland County

Biography

Albert Gallatin Craig

Albert Gallatin Craig. The Craig family is of Scotch extraction. They came from the vicinity of Craig Ellachie, a rocky eminence in Scotland. The Craigs in Virginia, Kentucky and adjoining States, are descendants of Talifarro Craig. He was born in Virginia, and about the year 1730 was married to Polly Hawkins, in Spottsyvania County. He had a fair complexion, rather below medium size and possessed a kind and amiable temperament. He died when about ninety years of age. He was the father of eleven children, namely: John, Joyce, Lewis Talifarro, Elijah, Jane, Joseph, Sarah, Benjamin, Jeremiah and Elizabeth. John Craig was a very handsome man. He came to Kentucky in 1781, and was in command at Bryant's Station during the siege by the Indians in 1782. He was the first representative the county of Kentucky had in the Legislature of Virginia. He was a large land owner and became very rich. Lewis Craig was born in Orange County, Va., about the year 1737. He united with the Baptist Church about the year 1765. Soon after his conversion he was indicted 'for preaching the Gospel contrary to law.' The celebrated John Waller was one of the jurors in the case. The pious and prudent deportment of Mr. Craig during the trial was blessed to the conviction and conversion of Mr. Waller. On the 4th of June, 1768, while being engaged in public worship, he was seized by the sheriff and brought before three magistrates, who required him to give security not to preach in the county within twelve months. This he refused to do and was committed to jail in Fredericksburgh. During his confinement he preached through the prison bars to large crowds. He remained in jail one month in Caroline County. He continued preaching with great zeal and success until 1781, when he moved to Kentucky. He established the first Baptist Church in Kentucky and was the founder of Elkhorn and Bracken associations. He died suddenly about the year 1828. Elijah Craig was born in Orange County, Va., about the year 1743. He joined the Baptist Church in 1764. He was, perhaps, the most eminent preacher in Virginia in his day. He was imprisoned in Culpepper jail one month for preaching the gospel. After this 'he was honored with a term in Orange jail.' In 1786 he removed to Scoto County, Ky., and laid out the town of Georgetown. It was at first called Lebanon. He established the first school in which classics were taught, built the first ropewalk, the first fulling-mill and the first paper-mill that existed in Kentucky. He was a good business man and amassed a fortune. He died in 1808. Jane Craig married John Sanders. She was the grandmother of the late George N. Sanders. Benjamin Craig was born March 30, 1751, in Culpepper County, Va. He was married to Nancy Stuman. He had eleven children, namely: Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth, George, Benjamin, Nancy, Sarah, Levi, Lewis, Silas and Stuman. He laid out the town of Port William, now Carrollton, at the mouth of the Kentucky River. He died December 5, 1822. George Craig (mentioned above) was the grandfather of Edward Eggleston. Benjamin Craig was born September 21, 1777. He married Elizabeth Morris. Her mother was a sister of George Walton. He (George Walton) was one of the signers of the Declaration of Indpendence; was twice governer of Georgia; chief justice of the State, 1783; judge of the United States Supreme Court, 1793, and United States Senator, 1795. He was the father of George Walton, Jr., governor of Florida, and the grandfather of the celebrated Octavia Walton Le Vert. Benjamin Craig had seven children, namely: Robert, Walton, Anderson, Joshua, Benjamin, Elizabeth and Silas. He was accidently drowned in the Ohio River about the year 1848. Walton Craig was born July 29, 1803, in Gallatin, now Carroll County, Ky. He married Laurinda Peak, of Scott County, Ky., July 31, 1828. He is still alive, aged eighty-two years, and living in his native county on his farm on the banks of the Ohio River, near Ghent, Ky. In early life he was a flat-boat pilot and afterward a pilot on steam-boats between Louisville and New Orleans. For many years he was engaged in merchandising. He is tall and slender; he is respected and beloved by all his acquaintances; he has amassed a large fortune; he has been a member of the Baptist Church since he was fourteen years of age; he has been a liberal contributor to the cause of Christianity, educational and charitable institutions. He wife died August 15, 1872. She was a member of the Baptist Church and one of the best of women. He has since married Mrs. C.M. Eaton, and had nine children, namely: Eva, Bettie, Dudley Peak, Isaac, John, Walton, Albert Gallatin, Benjamin and Leonidas. Isaac and John died in childhood; Eva, Benjamin and Leonidas live in Missouri; Bettie and Walton in Covington, Ky.; Dudley Peak in Carroll County, Ky., and Albert Gallatin, of Vevay, Ind. Albert Gallatin Craig, M.D., of Vevay, was born near Ghent, Carroll Co., Ky., February 14, 1844. He was educated at Georgetown College, Kentucky, from which institution he graduated in 1864. The same year he graduated he united with the Georgetown Baptist Church. He is at the present time one of the deacons in the Vevay Baptist Church. In the summer of 1864 he taught a school in Ghent, Ky., and commenced the study in medicine. He attended two courses of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, receiving the degree of M.D. from that institution in March, 1866. During the years 1866-67 he was house surgeon in the Cincinnati Hospital, and during the epidemic of cholera in Cincinnati in 1866, he had charge of the cholera wards. After leaving the hospital he opened an office on Jefferson Street, in Louisville, Ky. He remained there several months when he received a proposition from Dr. P.C. Ellis, of Ghent, Ky., to remove there and engage as equal partner with him in the practice of medicine, which he accepted. He was made a Master Mason in Ghent in the autumn of 1867. February 11, 1868, he married Miss Laura E. Houston, of Bourbon County, Ky., a relative of Gen. Samuel Houston, of Texas. two children-a son, James Frank, and a daughter, Evie May-have been born to them, both of whom are living. They were born born in Ghent, Ky.; the son April 29 1870, the daughter, February 4, 1875. His wife was born in Bourbon County, Ky., October 23, 1848. In 1873 he was elected professor of anatomy and physiology in Ghent College, Kentucky. In 1877-78 he attended a course of lectures in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City. In 1878 he removed to the city of Vevay, Ind., where he now resides, and formed a partnership with Dr. L.J. Woolen. In 1882 he was elected health officer of the city of Vevay, but did not accept. The same year he was elected health officer of Switzerland County, Ind., the duties of which office he is still performing. He is a member of the Switzerland County Medical Society, and of the Indiana State Medical Society. He has been a Democrat from boyhood and is a man of decided convictions, but liberal and conservative in his views. the following excerpts are from 'Representative Men of Indiana,' Vol. I: 'Dr. Craig is a gentleman possessing a fine literary and professional education. His service in the Cincinnati Hospital gave him many advantages over most young men who enter upon their professional career without sufficient practical instruction in their profession. He is a conscientious, pains-taking practitioner, well versed in the science his calling. In the management of his cases he is cautious and deliberate, yet self-reliant and prompt. His practice, as a physician and surgeon, has been brillant and successful, and his reputation as a citizen and gentleman is without a blemish. He has contributed numerous and important papers on medical subjects to the "Western Journal of Medicine," "The American Practitioner," "American Medical Bi-Weekly," and the "Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal," several of which have been republished in the journals of this country and of Europe. He possesses great business and financial ability, so often lacking in medical men. * * * He is above medium height and possessed of affiable, pleasant manners, of cultivated literary tastes, a warm friend, and in private life a man of exemplary habits and deportment. He is known to be a moral and upright man, an able, conscientious physician and a sincere Christian. Now in the prime of life, and in the very heyday of healthful and vigorous manhood, ambitious to do all in his power in his profession, his future bids fair to be even brighter than the past has been."

Source: History of Switzerland County, Indiana 1885. Chicago, Illinois: Weakley, Harraman & Co., 1885
Transcribed by: Sheila Kell